5 Things To Do This Weekend, July 26-28: It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

1. Friday night in the Bang-town area you can start your weekend off with some magic with Ten Bucks Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s “Tempest” at 6 p.m. at Indian Trail Park in Brewer, improv troupe the Focus Group at 8 p.m. at the Next Generation Theatre in Brewer, or River City Cinema’s free screening of “Cape Fear” in Pickering Square at 9 p.m. Later that night, enjoy power trio the 220s at Paddy Murphy’s, Tomorrow Morning at Ipanema, Between Dead Stations at the Big Easy, or Jacob Augustine at Nocturnem Drafthaus. On Saturday, Garrison Keillor and friends come to the Waterfront for the Radio Romance Tour at 7 p.m.; Trisha Mason is at Paddy’s, the Impartial Crowd is at Ipanema, Mes Amis is at Nocturnem and Stesha Cano is at the Big Easy. There’s also a triple bill of indie rock at Tantrum at 9:30 p.m. Saturday night, featuring Bangor’s own Chamberlain with New Yorkers Miniboone (look at those adorable guys in that picture up there!) and Bunny’s a Swine; cover is $5. Wrap it all up on Sunday with wacky bluegrass ensemble Nevah at 4Points BBQ in Winterport.

2. Friday night is Art Walk night in Portland, so there’s lots of interesting visual arts and performance events all evening, such as a performance from Esduardo Mariscal Dance-Theater at the Portland Public Library, a marathon art creation event with the Hidden Ladder Collection at the Meg Perry Center on Congress Street, and new gallery pieces and installations at the Space Gallery. Later that night, enjoy John Clavette at the Big Easy, Father John Misty (pictured, with some mysterious wizard babes) at Port City Music Hall, an electro house dance party at the Flask Lounge, and a night of metal and punk with Ogre, Murcielago and Big Meat Hammer at Geno’s. On Saturday, the pride of Wells, rapper Spose, will take the stage at the Big Easy, the Outlaws are at the Asylum, the annual Lobsterstomp event featuring Cowgirls of the Damned, The Staten Island Fairies, The Gamma Goochies, The Flipsides, Anna Pillsbury, and DJ Matt Little starting at 7 p.m. at Bayside Bowl, Tegan and Sara are at the State Theatre and Anna Vogelzang performs at the Oak and the Ax in Biddeford. Wrap it all up Sunday with Tribal Seeds at the Asylum or Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls at Port City.

3. On Friday night in Ellsworth the town will light up with the first-ever Art & Block Party, sponsored by the Yessah blog, set for 6 p.m. at 9 Store St. in town. There’s a fashion show featuring Maine Street Clothing, and art from an array of Maine artists, as well as a live DJ and food. On MDI on Friday, you can catch Jeff Beam at the Lompoc; on Saturday there’s Ameranouche, also at the Lompoc, and the Blast Addicts at Sips in Southwest Harbor. Across the bay, Saturday night brings two fun shows to Rockland; indie rockers GinLab (pictured) and electro trio the Other Bones will play at Rock City Coffee, while at the Strand Theatre you can enjoy The Duhks and Lucy Wainwright Roche.

4. Two fun festivals this weekend, in two positively gaw-geous areas of the state. First off, the annual Grand Lake Stream Folk Arts Festival, set for Saturday and Sunday, tucked away in a lovely corner of Washington County. Each year the town brings together sculptors, potters, jewelers, woodworkers, fabric artists, food artisans, soapmakers, painters, designers and countless others to show off their wares. There’s music, too, with everyone from the Machias Ukulele Orchestra to the Perpetual E-Motion contra band. This same weekend, the Ossipee Valley Music Festival starts in Hiram in Oxford County – actually on Thursday, through Saturday – with bluegrass and roots artists including Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives, Sarah Jarosz, Sara Watkins, Della Mae, the Holmes Brothers, the Duhks, the John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band and many more. Tickets are available at the gate.

5. You know what? For once, there is no five. I’m leaving it up to you, dear reader, to fill in the blank. What should we do this weekend? Where should we go? I’m sure there’s lots more than just the above mentioned things. Where is there a neat concert, a family event, an out of the way gem that we might not know about? Respond below with your suggestions, and maybe I’ll revise this later to include it.

About Emily Burnham

Emily Burnham is a Maine native, UMaine graduate, proud Bangorian and a writer and editor for Bangor Metro Magazine, the Weekly and the Bangor Daily News, where she's worked since 2004. She reports on everything from local bands to local food to all the cool things going on in the Greater Bangor area. In her quest for stories, she's seen countless concerts and plays, been lobster fishing, interviewed celebrities, hung out with water buffalo and played in a ukulele orchestra. She's interested in everything that happens in Maine. Albums for review are accepted digitally only; please no CDs.
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Emily Burnham

Emily Burnham is a Maine native, UMaine graduate, proud Bangorian and a writer and editor for Bangor Metro Magazine, the Weekly and the Bangor Daily News, where she's worked since 2004. She reports on everything from local bands to local food to all the cool things going on in the Greater Bangor area. In her quest for stories, she's seen countless concerts and plays, been lobster fishing, interviewed celebrities, hung out with water buffalo and played in a ukulele orchestra. She's interested in everything that happens in Maine. Albums for review are accepted digitally only; please no CDs.